


look at me look at me look at me

by cabinet_man



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Coffee Shops, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 21:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20731106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cabinet_man/pseuds/cabinet_man
Summary: Gary gets coffee, but Jimmy doesn't like coffee very much.





	look at me look at me look at me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [garyc0re](https://archiveofourown.org/users/garyc0re/gifts).

> for hawk, because i couldn't ask for a better friend

The clock on the wall goes _ tick, tick, tick _ as Gary drums his fingers on the side of his almost empty coffee mug. Jimmy was supposed to be here an hour ago, and his coffee has gone cold by now. Sure, the Bullworth king was always running late, but an _ hour_? Gary could have scoffed.

But nonetheless, Gary hasn’t moved from his spot at the small, circular table and has no intentions of doing so. Jimmy is going to show up eventually; he always does. And Gary just has to learn to be patient, but it’s just so _ difficult _to.

The bell rings.

Gary perks up.

In walks Derby Harrington and Bif Taylor, the former eyeing Gary a moment before strolling past. They order the newest (and most expensive) item on the menu, then leave without another glance in his direction. Gary feels himself practically deflate, but keeps his composure. Jimmy will be here any minute now.

Half an hour passes.

Jimmy still hasn’t shown.

Gary isn’t sad that the other hasn’t shown his pathetic face yet. No, he has no reason to mope about. Jimmy does as he pleases, and that only _ infuriates _Gary. His fingers drum against his now empty mug, and he’s becoming far more impatient than he had been earlier.

He’s ready to leave, to hunt down Hopkins himself for standing him up like that. He’s been waiting there, at that tiny, wobbly table for an _ hour and a half_. The legs of the chair he’s sitting on scrape across the ground, but before he can stand, the bell rings again.

Gary doesn’t want to look, because he doesn’t care anymore. But he turns his head anyways, just to be sure.

Jimmy Hopkins is standing there, uniform ripped and nose bloodied and he’s battered and bruised all over. Gary’s gaze becomes a little less harsh as he takes it all in, and Jimmy catches that gaze. Gary’s heart leaps up into his throat, and Jimmy makes his way towards the table. He sits down without a word, arms folded over his chest in a petulant manner. Gary lets him be, opting to go up to the counter and order another coffee for himself, and one for Jimmy.

One coffee black, no sugar added. The other, a cappuccino. Gary has his tastes.

He sits back down, and sets the cappuccino down in front of Jimmy, who stares at it a moment before deciding to straighten up and fix his posture, just a little bit. Dried blood is still very much visible on his face, and Gary eyes it. Jimmy is king of the whole school- everyone respects him. Townies, greasers, preps, jocks, nerds… none of them would dare to pick a fight with Jimmy, especially with the standing he has. It makes him wonder a little, but he doesn’t dwell on it for long.

He looks down into the dark liquid, which is rippling slightly on the surface because of his shaky hands. He takes a drink, and finds himself relaxing a little. The liquid is hot, and he’s certain that his tongue burned a little, and maybe even his throat is. But it’s still a burning sensation that he’d welcome with open arms any day.

He hears Jimmy grunt, and his eyes flicker up towards the other boy.

“Don’t tell me,” he drawls out.

“How do you drink this stuff?” Jimmy asks instead. “It’s _ disgusting_.”

And Gary has to stop himself from rolling his eyes at that. _ Of course_.

“You agreed to this, _ moron_,” Gary retorts. He waited an hour and a half for this, and the fact that Jimmy didn’t even _ like _coffee was irritating him.

Jimmy was going to finish that coffee whether or not he enjoyed it or not.

“So? You could’ve, like, gotten me a hot chocolate or something,” Jimmy grumbles.

“You said you liked coffee,” Gary responds, his voice coming out like a growl. “God, you really are worthless.”

Jimmy doesn’t respond after that, and Gary finishes his caffeinated drink in silence. Jimmy still hasn’t taken another sip, and Gary sits there, waiting for him. But Jimmy doesn’t move.

The bell rings.

More people enter, and Jimmy doesn’t bother to look up when one of them greets him. They take Jimmy’s silence to heart it seems, and take their leave to join the rest of their group.

Some of Gary’s anger simmers away.

Jimmy picks up the styrofoam cup, and for a moment Gary thinks that maybe Jimmy is actually going to take a sip from it. The cup slams against the wall of the coffee shop, its contents spilling out all over the group that had entered the building only moments before. There’s a disgruntled chatter before all eyes turn to Jimmy and Gary.

The anger comes back.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Gary finds himself saying, but there’s an echo to his voice, which he discovers is actually one of the boys from the group. A blond in a white t-shirt. Or, at least, it was a white t-shirt, anyhow. His hair was drenched, and his shirt was stained and wet.

“I dunno, what the fuck is _ your _problem?” Jimmy snaps back, raising up to his feet. His arms are stiff, and his hands are clenched tightly into fists. Jimmy is absolutely furious with the guy, and Gary recognizes him as Trent Northwick. That may explain why Jimmy’s so angry with the guy, just because of who he is.

Trent stands up, too, and he’s much taller than Jimmy. There’s some blood on his knuckles, and slowly Gary is starting to piece everything together.

He stands up as well, and grabs Jimmy’s wrist.

“We’re going,” he says with far more venom lacing his voice than he thought there would be, and pulls Jimmy along with him.

The alleyway behind the shop is empty, which is perfect.

Jimmy is silent, but seething. He looks ready to explode, and Gary idly wonders if he’ll get beaten up. It wouldn’t be the first time, and probably wouldn’t be the last.

Gary and Jimmy aren’t “a thing.” Not really. They kiss sometimes and go on dates, but they aren’t “together.” Neither of them have ever popped the question before, and neither of them have any plans to do so anytime soon. Or ever, really.

“What the hell was that?!” Gary has no right to ask the question, but he does so anyway. He’s angry about what happened in there, because there goes ten dollars down the drain. He wonders why he even bothers.

Jimmy’s fury is focused on him now. “That’s none of your goddamn business,” he hisses out, shoving Gary away from him. But Gary holds his ground.

“It’s my goddamn business since you wasted my cash!” Gary shouts, jabbing a finger into Jimmy’s chest. Jimmy winces back a little, and Gary is puzzled for a moment before his eyes go wide and he retracts his hand.

“That bastard!” He spits out, “I’ll kill him!” But Jimmy grabs his arm before Gary can carry out his plan of sneaking into the back room of the shop and slipping rat poison into whatever drink Trent decided to choose.

“Don’t bother,” Jimmy says, and he wipes his nose. The dried blood catches onto his sleeve. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Jimmy’s voice had never been so soft, and Gary doesn’t think he likes it very much. He’s dreamt about it before, only once, but this isn’t the scenario in which he’d hoped to hear it in. Jimmy starts to walk, and Gary follows.

They slink past the prefects and into the boys’ dorm, because Gary isn’t allowed to be on school grounds. He was expelled, and entering campus counted as trespassing.

There’s a medkit underneath Jimmy’s bed. He’d picked it up sometime at the beginning of the school year, because Petey was worried that Jimmy’s wounds from Russell would become infected if he didn’t get patched up. Jimmy laughed at Petey for thinking such a thing, but still stole the kit from the infirmary anyways for a different reason entirely. He was still grateful to have it, because it helped the healing process go quicker.

Gary pulled it out and had Jimmy sit on the bed. He poured some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball and pressed it to a cut on the other’s face, causing him to wince.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” He asks. “I told you to stay away from that prick.”

Jimmy doesn’t respond, not even when Gary pulls back to get another cotton ball.

“I didn’t mean what I said earlier,” he says, and Jimmy still doesn’t respond. He starts to wipe away the blood. “I don’t mean a lot of the things I say.”

He sounds so fucking pathetic. Gary Smith does _ not _show his feelings, but yet here he is: spilling his heart out to the boy that shoved him off of the roof of the school. He wonders where it all went wrong.

The blood is all gone.

Gary pulls back.

“You’re gorgeous,” he says. It’s so not like him to act this way, to be _ so weak _ in front of _ anyone_. Maybe Hopkins touched a part of his heart that nobody was ever able to touch in the first place. It’s happened before, back before he went off of his meds and before the betrayal. Back when Jimmy had to return a stolen diary to a girl who Gary can’t remember the name of. He’s still not sure what sparked it. Emotions are fucked up.

But Jimmy’s the one crying this time, and Gary doesn’t realize it until he’s pulled in tightly for a hug. He’s frozen, not sure what to do, or if it’s even okay for him to touch Jimmy like this.

But Gary wraps his arms around Jimmy, and holds him close as he thumbs his back. He’s not used to these kinds of things. Affections of any kind are a rare occurrence in Gary’s life, and he’s hesitant.

He holds Jimmy for a while, and for a while more. Jimmy’s sobs quiet down, and soon they’re sitting in silence again, but still embraced.

Jimmy pulls back, and wipes his eyes. He looks ashamed, and Gary’s heart wrenches.

“You can leave now,” Jimmy says, and it’s more of a demand than a suggestion. Gary feels obliged to listen to him, and gets to his feet. He doesn’t say a word as he walks towards the doorway, and just barely hears Jimmy mumble out a “thanks” before he opens the door. He pauses for a moment, wondering if he should just say it. But he decides against it.

Another time, then, he decides.

Jimmy exits the dorms sometime after dinner, and Gary watches him from outside the gates. He wonders if he dreamt about Jimmy falling apart, because he looks just as tough as he did when he set foot in the coffee shop earlier that day.

Jimmy Hopkins is incapable of crying. But he trusted Gary enough to let him in on the truth.

They lock eyes for a moment.

He turns away and makes his way towards the back of the school. Russell is trailing behind him, and Gary can’t help but wonder if he’ll have to clean up more blood.

As twisted as it might sound, he hopes he will.


End file.
